The old mission of Calico Labs is to “devise interventions that enable people to lead longer and healthier lives.” The new mission is “to harness advanced technologies to increase our understanding of the biology that controls lifespan”.
This is Brady Hartman’s information at Longevity Facts.
Bill Maris who proposed Calico has said that’s possible that people could live “for 500 years.”
Calico Labs is not just a pharmaceutical company, a technology company, nor is it involved in basic research. They are all three rolled into one. Calico Labs has linked three or more separate fields, joining the massive computational power of computers with basic research, genomics and drug development.
Calico Labs is using a lot of mentions machine learning and artificial intelligence to breakdown genomics and other data.
They are partnering with MIT, Buck Institute, Harvard and others and biopharma company AbbVie. Calico and AbbVie will jointly invest up to $1.5 billion in developing age-related therapies.
Calico Labs is now focused on drug development, as the startup has formed many partnerships with drug companies.
In 2017, they partnered with C4 Therapeutics to work on developing drugs for “diseases of aging,” such as type 2 diabetes and cancer. C4 Therapeutics is a private biotechnology company developing a new class of drugs based on Targeted Protein Degradation (TPD) to address a broad range of life-threatening and life-impairing diseases. C4T’s Degronimid™ platform uses small molecule drugs to direct the machinery of the ubiquitin-proteasome system to selectively degrade disease-relevant proteins for therapeutic benefit.
Calico Labs has a partnership with University of California start-up QB3, a biotech incubator.
Jackson Labs and Calico will jointly develop and Calico will fund research projects that utilize the unique resources and expertise of JAX to study the genetics of health and longevity. These studies may identify genes that associate with healthy aging. Calico has the option to obtain exclusive rights to discoveries made in these collaborative projects.
The aging community has firmly decided that certain biochemical pathways are essential to aging. For example, one pathway involves insulin, and the other involves mTOR. Longevity researchers have already identified two anti-aging drugs, called geroprotectors that target those pathways. Metformin targets insulin (and to some extent mTOR), and the drug rapamycin targets its namesake, the mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR). Research studies have concluded that rapamycin extends lifespan in mice, and metformin extends lifespan in diabetics, by preventing cancer and warding off heart disease. In the longevity field, metformin and rapamycin are considered sure bets. In fact, the TAME Study is $65 million dollar trial to test the anti-aging effects of metformin. The other leading geroprotector rapamycin is also involved in clinical trials.
Calico Labs is revisiting these ‘proven concepts’ using the newest technologies.
Calico Labs is making a heavy bet on basic biology. They are using less-conventional animal models in its laboratory research, such as the naked mole rat.
Calico Labs built a machine that decodes a human genome from scratch. They used machine learning and not the official genome map. It worked.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels.
A frequent speaker at corporations, he has been a TEDx speaker, a Singularity University speaker and guest at numerous interviews for radio and podcasts. He is open to public speaking and advising engagements.
An anti-ageing product that actually works, marketed successfully, will change everything.
“(…) to increase our understanding of the biology (…)” instead of “to devise interventions that enable (..) longer lives”
That sounds like the steering in direction of just a study and not a fix (of the ageing body). What a waste. Can’t they just fund sens.org with 100 mln of dollars instead?
Study on. We’ll check with you 100 years from now.